Thursday, May 15, 2008

Democrats in the legislature are in a tizzy because State Auditor Les Merritt -- a Republican they think has gone from preachin' to meddlin' -- is out of bounds investigating an anonymous ethics complaint filed against a state legislator. They want to make the new State Ethics Commission the sole agency to investigate ethics complaints.There might be some good arguments for that, such as having a single agency responsible for ethics matters so those with complaints know right where to go. But will the commission investigate all ethics complaints, even anonymous complaints? Will state employees have confidence in filing complaints that they won't be fired for daring to raise an ethics issues? After the governor's office fired a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services over a different issue, it's difficult to believe that state employees won't be intimidated about having to file a sworn complaint if there's any chance their employer will find out who complained. And, of course, there's the matter of who disciplines legislators if the Ethics Commission determines a complaint has merit. The commission has to give its findings to a legislative ethics committee for any action to be taken against a member. Who knows when any of these findings will be public?The auditor's office, meanwhile, conducts investigations and makes the results public -- with the kind of transparent government that's so valuable in a democracy. Democrats in the legislature ought to think twice about how they're going to look if they prohibit any other state agency from looking into ethics matters. After the legislature's wave of corruption that included campaign finance violations, the passing of gobs of money in the men's room, bribery for a vote to stay in power and the sentencing of former Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Black to prison, Democrats will be handing an easy campaign issue to Republicans if they forbid the auditor's office from making inquiries about ethics regardless of whether it makes sense.

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About This Blog

Jack Betts is an Observer associate editor who has written
about North Carolina since graduating from UNC Chapel Hill in 1968. A former
Pentagon photographer and Washington correspondent for Landmark newspapers,
Betts was Raleigh Bureau Chief for the Greensboro Daily News and editor of
North Carolina Insight magazine before joining the Observer in 1992.